Railway supply industry news round-up

22 Feb 2019

Founder of Angel Trains International and former CEO of RATP Dev’s UK and South African operations Tim Jackson has joined Centrus, which is planning to expand its UK rail financing activities into the Continental European market. Centrus European Rail Management aims to offer operators, manufacturers and transport authorities access to tailor-made long-term funding, along with fleet and contract management capabilities.

Siemens Canada has opened procurement offices in Montréal, Québec, and Oakville, Ontario, to source Canadian content of up to 20% for the VIA Rail fleet replacement programme. Siemens is seeking electrical, mechanical, technical service and spare parts suppliers, which it said would be selected on the total cost of ownership, quality and delivery schedule. Qualified applicants would also be considered for other Siemens projects where relevant.

On February 19 Australian infrastructure and property company John Holland completed the acquisition of RCR O’Donnell Griffin’s rail and transport business, which has almost 400 employees in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia involved in signalling design and construction, electrification and other mechanical and electrical systems. ‘Growing our business in key sectors like transport will allow us to meet our goal to double in size by 2021’, said John Holland CEO Joe Barr.

The Thai-Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Bombardier Transportation have renewed their Sustainability Partnership agreement, which covers the promotion of workplace equality, innovation, education and leadership development. CanCham will co-operate with Bumrungrad Hospital to organise talks at Bombardier Transportation’s Bangkok site covering topics including workplace wellbeing, women’s health and stress management.

Infrastructure company Amey has appointed Andy Joy as sector director for its Rail business. He joined the company in 2018 as a business director when Amey acquired the majority of Carillion’s rail activities.

Bureau Veritas has certified Voith’s Pilotfish subsidiary according to the ISO 27001 information security standard. ‘With applications on board over 10 000 buses, trains and trams, it is natural that we focus on information security’, said Pilotfish CEO Tomas Gabinus.

In a submission to the UK parliament’s International Trade Select Committee’s inquiry into government support for exports, the Railway Industry Association has called for more support when promoting rail products and services overseas, greater use of rail content in national marketing campaigns, grants for SMEs looking to export and increased support at exhibitions and trade missions. ‘The UK rail industry exports £800m in goods and services every year, employing 600 000 people and generating £36bn in economic growth’, said RIA Exports Director Neil Walker. ‘With uncertain times ahead, as the UK seeks to leave the EU, UK rail needs even more support to ensure it is accessing new markets overseas, is securing international contracts and is publicising effectively the rich range of expertise that we have to offer.’